While Hurricane Maria threatens the Caribbean islands already devastated by Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Jose is making impact on the Atlantic Coast from the Carolinas to New England.

Delaware transportation officials have closed the bridge on the state's main coastal artery because of a dune breach.

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Officials said Tuesday that a breach in the dunes near Conquest Road prompted the closure of the Indian River Inlet bridge to both northbound and southbound traffic Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach.

Officials say the closure will remain in effect until the water has receded to a safe level for motorists.

The National Weather Service posted coastal flood warnings for the central and southern Delaware, and a coastal flood advisory for other areas in the mid-Atlantic, including Worcester and St. Mary's counties in southern Maryland.

Hurricane Jose stirred up dangerous surf and rip currents along the East Coast, though forecasters said the storm was unlikely to make landfall. Big waves caused by the storm swept five people off a coastal jetty in Rhode Island and they were hospitalized after being rescued.

A tropical storm warning was posted for coastal areas in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and tropical storm watches were up for parts of New York's Long Island and Connecticut. Jose's center was about 365 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, early Tuesday and moving north at 9 mph. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

The National Weather Service said the storm could cause moderate coastal flooding from Delaware to southern New England. Swells were impacting the East Coast and Bermuda.

Wind and rain from the storm could impact more inland areas of Maryland than just the coast,but the storm is expected to pass the Baltimore with little to no impact, the National Weather Service said.

"In Baltimore, there is really not going to be much of an impact at all," said Brian LaSorsa, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "There could be an isolated shower this afternoon. Most of the impact is staying offshore."

The Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, is set to pound Puerto Rico early this week and should move east of the Bahamas on Saturday, LaSorsa said.

"It's too early to tell up here if it's going to do anything," he said. "The latest guidance right now suggests maybe it'll stay offshore. We'll have to keep an eye on it for the next week, see what it does."

Hurricane Maria smashed into Dominica with catastrophic winds, leaving what one official described Tuesday as "widespread devastation" from the monster storm now threatening a similar swath of the Caribbean impacted by Hurricane Irma.

Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skeritt said on his Facebook page while the Category 5 storm was raging over his island nation that he would venture out to see the damage and secure needed help once the all-clear was given. He said his "greatest fear" was that island residents would awake to word of "serious physical injury and possible deaths."

At one point, he lost the roof to his own official residence as fierce winds also swept away the roofs of many others. He said his initial focus would be on rescuing trapped people and securing medical aid for the injured.

Maria's eye roared over the island late Monday night before the storm briefly dropped to Category 4 strength early Tuesday before resuming its extremely dangerous Category 5 status.

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Fierce winds and rain lashed mountainous Dominica for hours. A police official on the island, Inspector Pellam Jno Baptiste, said late Monday night that there were no immediate reports of casualties but it was too dangerous for officers to do a full assessment as the storm raged outside.

"Where we are, we can't move," he said in a brief phone interview late Monday night while hunkered down against the region's second Category 5 hurricane this month.

Maria weakened briefly before dawn Tuesday to a still major Category 4 storm after its rampage over Dominica. But the fluctuation in intensity proved short-lived as a hurricane hunter plane reported the hurricane back at a fearsome Category 5 within hours.

Skerrit earlier captured the fury of Maria as it made landfall. "The winds are merciless! We shall survive by the grace of God," Skerrit wrote at the start of a series of increasingly harrowing posts on Facebook.

A few minutes later, he messaged he could hear the sound of galvanized steel roofs tearing off houses on the small rugged island.

He then wrote that he thought his home had been damaged. And three words: "Rough! Rough! Rough!"

A half hour later, he said: "My roof is gone. I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding." Seven minutes later he posted that he had been rescued.

Officials in Guadeloupe said the French island near Dominica probably would experience heavy flooding and warned that many communities could be submerged. In nearby Martinique, authorities ordered people to remain indoors and said they should be prepared for power cuts and disruption in the water supply.

Authorities in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico warned that people in wooden or flimsy homes should find safe shelter before the storm's expected arrival there on Wednesday.

"You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you're going to die," said Hector Pesquera, the island's public safety commissioner. "I don't know how to make this any clearer."

Maria had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph) late Monday as it slammed into Dominica, its eye passing over the island before conditions began easing. Early Tuesday, a hurricane hunter plane found top winds had slightly weakened though Maria remained a still extremely dangerous Category 4 major storm.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Maria's top sustained winds returned to 160 mph shortly before daybreak Tuesday, the ey of Maria located about 65 miles west-southwest of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. The storm was moving west-northwest at 9 mph.

Fluctuations in intensity were expected, and forecasters have warned Maria would likely intensify over the next 24 hours or longer, noting its eye had shrunk to a compact 10 miles across and warning: "Maria is developing the dreaded pinhole eye."

That generally means an extremely strong hurricane will get even mightier, said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami. He said it just like when a spinning ice skater brings in their arms and rotates faster.

The storm's hurricane-force winds extended out about 35 miles and tropical storm-force winds out as far as 125 miles.

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Hurricane warnings were posted for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat. A tropical storm warning was issued for Martinique, Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, St. Lucia and Anguilla.

Forecasters said storm surge could raise water levels by 6 to 9 feet near the storm's center. The storm was predicted to bring 10 to 15 inches of rain across the islands, with more in isolated areas.

The current forecast track would carry it about 22 miles south of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands late Tuesday and early Wednesday, territorial Gov. Kenneth Mapp said.

"We are going to have a very, very long night," Mapp said as he urged people in the territory to finish any preparations.

St. Thomas and St. John are still stunned from a direct hit by Hurricane Irma, which did extensive damage and caused four deaths on the two islands.

Barry University said it chartered a private plane to carry students and staff from its St. Croix facility to Florida in preparation for Maria. It said 72 people connected to the Barry's Physician Assistant Program and a few pets were on Monday's evacuation flight.

In neighboring Puerto Rico, nearly 70,000 people were still without power following their earlier brush with Irma and nearly 200 remained in shelters as Maria approached.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello said Puerto Rico had 500 shelters capable of taking in up to 133,000 people in a worst-case scenario. He also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to bring drinking water and help restore power immediately after the storm, which could hit as a Category 5 hurricane.

"That is catastrophic in every way," said Roberto Garcia with the National Weather Service in San Juan. "People have to act, and they have to act now. They can no longer wait for a miracle."